~Chapter 3~

All We Are

And in the end, the words won't matter. 'Cause in the end, nothing stays the same. And in the end dreams just scatter, and fall like rain. - Matt Nathanson "All We Are"

Edward lunged, his anger at Jacob's comment unparalleled to anything he'd ever felt before. It took Emmett and Jasper holding him back to keep him from getting to Jacob and Carlisle in front of him to focus his anger. His body had been rippling and it was the closest he'd come to shifting yet. Jacob couldn't help but feel a little smug about his behavior. He was always so poised and now he was falling apart in his anger. Jacob began to wish that Bella could see Edward like that, to see that the anger and moodiness wasn't Jacob but what he had become.

"You have to stop instigating him." Alice said softly to Jacob, "If you honestly don't want Sam and the other wolves in your pack finding out by him shifting, then you have to stop."

Jacob drew a breath and nodded, "Alright. I'll try."

Alice watched him and just by him standing there, she could see something wasn't right with him. It was like he was possessed almost, nothing about Edward seemed right while Jacob was in him. It was unnerving to say the least.

"Did Bella say when she'd contact Sam?" Alice asked.

Jacob shook his head, "No. I told her it was important and to do it as quickly as possible but she has to get to the Rez, get him alone, and tell him."

"Hopefully soon." Alice said, her eyes back on her brother in Jacob's form and his struggle to calm down.

Jacob moved to look around the Cullen's house and to give Edward a chance to calm down. "I don't know how he can do it." Edward said, "I feel like I want to rip apart all of you. It's so overwhelming."

"It's their nature." Carlisle said with a soft smile. "Just like it is ours to feed on people. But you have to learn control of it."

"I don't want to control it, Carlisle. I want to get rid of it."

"Realistically Edward, I don't know if that's possible." He said in as calm and rational of voice as possible. "We don't know what in the necklace caused this. I don't know much about magic. I wouldn't even know where to begin to search. We will search. I promise you that we will search. You both will just have to learn to control your new bodies."

Edward shook his head, "Carlisle... I can't. I don't know if I can."

"You can. You'll have to."

Edward looked back to the food, starting to make something out of all the ingredients he pulled out of the fridge.

Jacob couldn't help but feel intimidated by every inch of this house. It represented everything he'd never have. No wonder Bella loved Edward so much, he was so rich. He felt the presence of Sam's mind as he approached. There was a comfort in it; he was the alpha- he would know what to do. Jacob moved to the door and opened it before Sam could knock, "Sam... it's so good to see you."

"If you're playing any sort of joke on Bella, it isn't funny." He said.

"I'm stuck in the body of this bloodsucker, do I look like I'm laughing about the situation Sam?" Jake said.

Sam looked him in the eyes, trying to search for his wolf brother in there but the eyes of the vampire were almost impossible to look through. He eventually stopped trying, "Can I come in?"

Jacob opened the door more and let him in. "Everyone's in the kitchen."

They walked to the kitchen where Edward was making a sandwich with virtually everything coming out of the fridge. Sam watched him for a minute, that was Jacob's body with a vampire inside of it. He didn't speak, just thinking through it. I don't know how to explain this to the pack. They'll be upset. Not to mention he'll know how we work if he shifts, he'll know our secrets and he'll be able to come and go on the Rez because he looks like Jacob. I don't like it.

Jacob sighed as he listened to his thoughts, "I know Sam. I don't like it either."

"You can read my mind?" Sam asked, not taking his eyes off of Edward. "Can both of you?"

"Only me." Jacob said. "I agree. I don't think he should try to pretend to be me on the Rez. He won't be able to do it and people are suspicious enough of our wolf activities, if he acts even more off base then someone will notice and start figuring it out. As for the pack, there's only a couple options."

"Which are?" Sam asked.

"You lay it out for them, let them know in a big meeting and let everyone process that in human form and let them decide what they want to do. Some of them might not be comfortable with him in the pack mind. Seth will likely offer to team with him for patrols. He can stay on the Cullen's side of the line while Seth stays on our side. If something comes near our territory, a nomad or anything like that, he can join the hunt or he can shift back and sit it out. He may have ethical issues with killing his own kind. But right now, we only know that a pendant did this. We don't know how or why or for how long. If this is long term, he'll have to learn to control himself and he shouldn't be denied the full brotherhood. It'd be unfair."

Sam nodded, Jacob was calm and rational and had obviously been thinking about it. "You know you won't be part of the pack anymore."

There was a pained look on Jacob's face but he nodded, "I know. If this never changes I can't go home. I know that. I'd never risk going home in this body, it could trigger more kids to shift and that'd be unforgivable." He said, "I hope we could still remain friends... on this side of the line."

Sam nodded again. He didn't know for certain if anyone but Quil or Embry would accept that offer but he wouldn't say that out loud. He saw Jacob's head hang and he knew that Jacob heard him clearly. I am so sorry, brother. I'll speak with the council and see if anyone knows anything that can help. But...

"I know Sam. I'm not holding my breath." Jacob said.

"Don't I have a say in this?" Edward asked.

Sam looked back to him, "Is anything we're saying not working for you."

"Aside from being stuck in this body?" He asked smartly, to which no one seemed impressed, "Where am I supposed to live?"

"Here." Carlisle said. "We'll get you a bed and you can stay here. Jacob can live out in the private house."

"What?" Emmett said. "I don't think that's fair to the rest of us."

Jacob pressed into Emmett's mind and realized there was a house on the property for them to have sex in. He started to see flashes of Emmett going at it with the nasty blonde. "Ew." Jacob said, trying to pull his mind from that. "Stop picturing it. Please. Stop."

Emmett realized what was going on and he started laughing, to which Edward started laughing as well. "Sorry." The big vampire said.

"No you're not." Jacob said, as the images finally faded a little.

"No, not really." Emmett said with a smirk.

Sam didn't seem comfortable, nor did he think it was funny to be left out of their stories. "I need to get back, to talk to everyone. We've had a bit of an issue so we're dealing with that. If he looses it and has to shift, we'll deal with it even though it's bad timing."

"What happened?" Jacob asked, concern in his statue-like features.

Sam didn't speak it but he thought about it. Paul and Jared had gone running toward Ocean Shores to meet up with a friend of Paul's cousin who had tickets to a concert in Tacoma and Jared wanted the tickets to take Kim. When they were running they came across a small pack, all fairly new shifted, and functioning as their own pack. There was five of them, three boys and two girls that were cousins to each other. The eldest girl was working as the alpha. The two groups were quite surprised to cross paths with each other and the concert tickets were all but forgotten. The five were all descendants of the Quilute tribe, though they didn't look it.

Jacob exhaled and he swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"It's a lot to deal with." Sam said, accepting Jacob's comment but not speaking more about it. The older sister wasn't bowing to Sam's authority and her pack had their own independent pack thoughts. She could speak for them but she wasn't allowing any sort of union between the packs fully. She didn't know or trust Sam yet.

"I wish you the best." Jacob said honestly.

"Thank you." He said. He looked to the Cullens, "If you'll excuse me." His eyes found Edward's, "We'll be in touch." With that Sam left.

Jacob leaned against the wall again, his eyes on Edward, "You need to learn control. He has enough to deal with without your added mess."

"Jacob." Carlisle said calmly.

Jacob held his hands up in surrender. "Fine. I'll go let Edward stay calm. But seriously... they don't need this right now."

"What's going on?" Edward asked, for once missing his ability to read minds.

"He just has a very full plate right now." Jacob said, refusing to give more.